PURTON skipper Aaron Lee is hoping the threat of a two-tier demotion will inspire his team as they look to turn around their season at Winsley on Saturday.

Lee’s side showed an improved batting performance last weekend, racking up 266 at home to Great Bedwyn, but could not dismiss Robert Palmer whose unbeaten 140 saw the visitors home.

This weekend they will need a repeat of that batting performance to have a chance of beating Winsley and putting themselves further away from danger in the Wiltshire Division.

Lee’s side currently sit third bottom, but should they slump further into the mire they could potentially find themselves relegated two divisions after the West of England Premier League end-of-season divisional reorganisation.

Ahead of the trip south, Lee believes that threat should serve to fire up is troops.

“Last week gives us something to build on definitely,” said Lee.

“It’s getting down to it now and we’re not in a great position really. It’s one we’d like to improve on.

“Every game is a cup final now. We’ve got to target those games against the likes of Great Bedwyn, Winsley – who we play this weekend – as well as Calne, Devizes and Malmesbury.

“We can’t afford to be in the bottom three, we want to be 100 per cent safe with the league restructuring at the end of the season.

“We’re in a pretty dire situation now. If we finish bottom or in the bottom two with all the league restructuring, depending on how the leagues finish above us, it could be really detrimental to the cricket club.

“Worst-case scenario we could be looking at being demoted two divisions. It’s not something we can afford to do.

“We’ve put a lot of effort in over a number of years to get in the position we are in and it would be so detrimental to end up in Wiltshire League Division Two.”

The inconsistency of Winsley makes it a tough game to predict, but Lee is hoping for a bit of grit from his side.

“We had a really close game with them early in the season,” he added. “It will be a tough game and it’s an important one for us, we have just got to hope we can get over the line against them.”